Squishy's TARDIS

[squishype]

The next steps:


Step 4, the left side.  Bolts down just like the right side, but both tops will bow in and out.


Step 5, install the steps over front and back doors.  This will now lock in the top of the box to a "perfect" square.  Well, fairly close to square.


Step 6, install the top.  The ceiling has been screwed in so it goes at the same time.  If my lamp was close to being finished I suppose it would slip on top next.


Step 7, install the front and rear sign boxes.  From step 6 it looks like I just routed out the fronts of the posts so these would slip in.


Step 8, hang the doors.  I've got 4 fully functioning doors.  It would be tough to dust behind the box if the rear didn't open up.

Step 9, install windows, signs, and everything else.  This step isn't quite ready yet, and probably won't until summer classes are finished.

Hopefully this would help anyone who is thinking of how to break the police box down into different parts.  If the rear wall had been solid instead of doors then I'd probably have done everything differently.  The 4 corner posts would have been separate from the side walls.  But with the rear doors things looked unstable so the posts got permanently fastened to the two sides.

Has anyone else had any luck with rear doors?  Everything is a lot less rigid this way.

This also makes a nice screen saver for me at the office.  I can watch the box get assembled all day.

[cyberleader1991]

Step 8, hang the doors.  I've got 4 fully functioning doors.  It would be tough to dust behind the box if the rear didn't open up.

Who has time for housework with all the Doctor Who props there are to build!

T 

[Doctor Iz]

Who has time for housework with all the Doctor Who props there are to build!

T 

Tom - I couldn't agree with you more! 
I keep telling my other half the same thing, she's not buying it!
I'll never give up!

Jon

[squishype]

It's been a long time coming but I've finally gotten some progress done on the windows.  Turns out this is likely the most labor intensive way of doing them.  From the other threads it looks like many of us have used a single pane of glass or plastic fastened to the rear of the frame.  Unfortunately I was already down the road of cutting six individual panes of glass to install in each frame.



This does allow for the inclusion of a hammered glass piece.  After nearly purchasing a shower door just to demolish my family found this at a craft store (Hobby Lobby-USA).



Its very important to carefully score each cut and provide full support.  When I got lazy and skipped the boards I tended to get diagonal breaks.



I also had the bad idea of glazing the window in a traditional fashion using glazing putty and points.  Hot glue may have been easier and definitely would have been cleaner.

[noIMG]http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/4896/glazingputtybo6.th.jpg[/img]

Then all it requires is a couple points to hold each pane in place and its nearly finished.  This is where I found out that as hard as you can push (and slip) you can really only run a screwdriver about 1/4" into the palm of your hand.  And here I thought it would go all the way through.  I did manage to break a couple panes of glass at the same time.  But this will add character to the box.  Windows on the real prop seemed to be broken lots of times.



I still need to go back and clean up the edges where putty has spilled out and gotten on the frame.  And then cloud the windows up using the tips out of the Workshop Manual.



As slow as all this has been between work and school I did manage to get the lock and a handle installed.  Its tough to find quite the right look of Hartnell's lock on the left door with that extra "ring" around it.  I recall seeing the Sensorites 15 years ago and thought there should be some good close-ups, but the DW Restoration Team is taking forever to get that one out on DVD.  That and I needed to pull the lock open to reverse the mechanism and create my own strike plate so the lock can mount to the static door.  Putting the lock on the right hand/opening door would definitely be easier.

[mantamatt]

Your new Tardis is spectacular squishy. I especially like the way you've made the corner posts. This would be a good method for an outdoors Tardis (like mine) since with the post being all one piece you don't have to worry about water getting behind the quarter round detaching it from the rest of the post . You of course won;'t have that issue to worry about.  Nice to see another set of white windows, and good on you for making them 'properly' with putty etc., adds to the authenticity.

Nice hartnell lock !

[squishype]

Yes, both the solid posts and a traditional glaze on the windows would help keep the water out.  Too bad I did the bevels for the doors out of MDF.  I'm figuring I should never let my box get wet unless I want some serious damage (even with two coats of sealer/primer and three coats of paint).  That and there are some gaps in the roof since the box is theoretically collapsible.  My first assembly shown above still took about an hour and a half most of which was trying to force the roof down into place.  I'm afraid I'll hurt myself the day I try to get the roof back off again.  Has anyone else had trouble with the paint sticking and parts being tough to pull apart?

[squishype]

Alright now, Christmas actually got me away from school and work long enough to get something going:



I'm not entirely happy with the lamp up top.  The glass is actually a pair of glass shades for those light fixtures like I've got in my laundry room.  They had ridges so I just stacked them on top of one another.  Unfortunately the 6" diameter relates to the size fixture they are meant to cover, the outside diameter is closer to 7".  It was a very tight squeeze getting the four posts down around.  It also makes the rounded top look too small.  But someday I'll find something better and actually get a bulb up there too.

This leaves the Police Box signs as the next to last major part.  Following kingbees' excellent progress I've now got four glass signs painted up:



As can be seen the paint always seems to find some way under the template.  More spray tack ended up getting the glass tacky which I'll now have to clean off before putting on the blue.  I'm now spending about an hour per sign with a razor blade cleaning up the edges.  What I'd love to hear are some suggestions for filling in the "gaps" left by the template.  The first plan was to spray the rest of my white spray can into a plastic bowl and then paint the gaps in with a brush.  Anyone ever try this with any success?  I'm thinking the brush strokes may stand out and be very obvious.  Tiny templates and another coat of spray paint may be impossibly tough to re-align.

The more critiques the better.

[squishype]

Its been a while since I've done any additional work.  Until a better lamp shows up this may be called complete:

[noimg]http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/2851/aboutcompletelu7.jpg[/img]

I'm sure I'll get ambitious enough to someday to get the flashing light to work and replace the Pull to Open sign with something better than a paper template.  The overall paint color is quite a bit lighter than my 1/2 size box and keeps on changing shades in each picture I take.  Somedays its too light, but late at night it looks right.

And to see what's going on inside:

[noimg]http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/4375/doorsopensx7.jpg[/img]

I can move all my VHS to the big box to allow my DVD collection to grow in the old 1/2 size box.
The only other thing to wrap up is to total all the receipts and add up my time that I've been jotting down.  Then I can start to measure if a Dalek or Console will still fit in the rest of the room.

[squishype]

After Halloween I walked around the old girl for the first time in ages and took a peek on the side away from the hallway.  And what did I see?



Where did the sign go from this side?  I'll look inside to check if it's merely tipped back onto that 6" wide ledge of the sign box.

Oh no 



So as a serious reminder to everyone, no matter how difficult it seems to get the sign in all the way and no matter how much it seems to be stuck in place, don't ever trust it!  There were so many bumps it didn't seems like the sign would ever come out of the box.  And it's an indoor box that doesn't take a lot of abuse.  It doesn't matter.  You still need to install some pins or glazing points to hold things in place.  Maybe its the change in seasons but wood moves and changes and what seemed like a tight fit before simply falls out months later.

Fortunately I've still got that template stuck to the washing machine.  Another good rule is never clean up and you'll never forget where you packed such important things away.

[peted]

LOVE the fact you've got hopper style windows!